


It's raining all night, killing me softly.

by Markmeinyourheart



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Riverdale (TV) Fusion, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Cheating, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Making Out, Mystery, Riverdale AU, Secret Relationship, Southside Serpent Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Southside Serpent Qian Kun, Violence, a little bit i guess, i think thats what it is, i tried to make the cheating as moral as possible because i cannot live with myself writing cheating, im so sorry johnny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:40:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Markmeinyourheart/pseuds/Markmeinyourheart
Summary: Kun sat cross legged outside the Whyte Worm, watching the fog clear and the moon illuminate in the sky, over the demise of the Southside Serpents.Kun did say that the night felt off.orThe Black Hood roams Riverdale and Southside Serpents Kun and Ten fall for each other. But at what cost?
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	It's raining all night, killing me softly.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this with no plot in mind, i just watched riverdale with my mom and this came to life.
> 
> DISCLAIMERS: graphic depictions of injury, there is cheating in this but i tried to make it as clear as possible as to why it happens, and violence.

Something in the evening fog was off to Kun. 

He sat in the White Wyrm, lounged on a rickety, rusty barstool with a drink he definitely isn’t old enough to have in his hand. Kun watched across the room at the group of Southside Serpents lazed on the leather seats under the red hue of the neon lights hanging off the wall. Johnny Seo, son of the Serpents’ leader, had an arm lazily thrown over his boyfriend’s shoulders like the protective cobra he was. 

Let’s just say Johnny wasn’t that fond of Kun. The younger boy is originally a Northside kid, and Johnny just had to rumble with him when Kun got transferred to Southside high. Given the older’s status in the Southside he had an unnecessarily big grudge against Kun. The first day they met on Kun’s first day at Southside High floods back to him whenever he sees Johnny and his boyfriend. 

_ Southside High, Sophomore Year _

_ The door was on its last legs, Kun observed as he pushed it open. Shattered glass on the floor beneath it, scratch marks and marker insults scattered around the wood. The hallway of Southside High screamed dangerous.  _

_ The lockers were dented - some splattered with blood - and had the generic blue paint scratched off to reveal corroding metal. There were stains on the floor along with striped straws that were evident to be jingle jangle. An ocean of faces looked him up and down, clawing and ripping at his formal attire with their eyes.  _

_ Kun quickened his pace and turned a corner carelessly, bracing a hand on his backpack. His feet walked faster and faster on their own until his shoulder forcefully knocked into a hard chest. _

_ “You have eyes, use ‘em.” The voice belonging to the chest spoke up with an aggressive lisp hissing at him. Rolling his eyes, Kun walked on. _

_ “Hey!” The voice barked again, causing Kun to turn around, “Are you gonna apologize or what?” _

_ The guy was tall, very tall, with a slick leather jacket and a few dollar store chains hanging from the loops of his belt. His hair was short and brown with a subtle red tint, a few strands falling over his forehead. Kun should be intimidated, but he had the gall to let out an unconscious giggle.  _

_ “What’s so funny, sweater vest?” He took a predatory step closer and eyed him up and down, sweater vest and all before he chuckled, “I get it now, I get it. You’re the Northside kid, thinking you can get away with whatever you want? You all reek of privilege, and down here things like that don’t work.” _

_ Kun was going to raise his voice but before he could open his mouth a boy appeared from behind his opposition.  _

_ The boy had brown hair and tan skin, looking delicate and cute with round glasses framing his face. The same jacket the tall boy was wearing was loosely wrapped around him and his boots were chunky and brown. He looked...perfect. Kun didn’t even realise that he was staring him down with doe eyes until the boy turned to the taller guy and held a cautious grip on his leather-clad bicep. _

_ “Johnny, don’t even think about it-” The boy warned with a fragile whisper but was cut off by the tall boy; Johnny. _

_ “Ten, don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.” Johnny shrugged Ten off and took hold of him by the shoulder. _

_ “First off, sweater vest, keep your eyes off my doll. Now, you’re gonna apologize, yeah?” The tall boy continued, recognising Kun staring at Ten with stars in his eyes. Kun sighed and looked Johnny in the eyes. _

_ “I apologise.”  _

_ Smugly, Johnny chuckled and pulled Ten closer into him. By now, they had a crowd of students surrounding them, hungry for a fight. Kun peeped Ten anxiously reach for Johnny’s hand that dangled around his shoulder and hung his head.  _

_ “Exactly. Now, you keep your googly-eyes off of my Ten and walk away, or I’ll make sure you end up like that Blossom kid-” Johnny’s threatening, gruff voice drew a few ‘oohs’ and a couple of gasps. Ten whipped his head up at his tall boyfriend so fast he could’ve gotten whiplash. _

_ Not many people on the Southside had expected a ‘privileged’ Northside kid that dressed in sophisticated baby blue and beige would be anything synonymous with violent or fear-inducing. But he was transferred to an ecstasy-infested, criminal-infected school for a good damn reason.  _

_ And that speculation was proven to be oh so right when Qian Kun decked delinquent Southside Serpent Johnny Suh right in the face. _

_ The room soaked in silence apart from the rattling of the chains on Johnny’s jeans and the scuffle of his feet as he moved to reciprocate the violence. The taller’s hands harshly grab at the lapels of Kun’s blazer - fingernails digging into the material intricately. Before Johnny could lay another hand on the other’s body, a small, frail hand gripped at his forearm.  _

_ “Johnny, come on, you don’t need to do all thi-” Ten tried to tenderly talk his lover down with a silvery tone, manhandling the tall boy to face him. The attempt ended up in Ten being dismissively shoved back, the force of his boyfriends push sending his small body flying back onto the floor with a slide.  _

_ Ten’s mouth fell open with a buried yelp and he shamefully drank in the dramatic gasps and shouts and long gazes at Ten’s state on the floor.  _

_ Turning his attention back to Kun, Johnny once again scrunched Kun’s shirt in his hands and yanked him close to knee him painfully direct in the stomach. Their scuffle shifted into Johnny being slammed against the lockers; the rattle reverberated around the hallway. For a physically composed boy at first sight, he was surprisingly strong. _

_ “Go Johnny! Johnny’s so cool, he’s my best friend!” A dorky freshman Serpent - Mark Lee - was yelling and cheering Johnny on from his view in the crowd, “You can take him, Johnny!” _

_ And brutal. _

_ “No wonder he got sent down here,” A kid leaned down to hiss in Ten’s ears as they spectated Kun running a fist around Johnny’s face, “He fits right in, just like us.” _

_ Sooner or later, the echoing shatter of the lockers gathered teachers like a siren and the two boys were pulled away from each other and down the hallway in separate directions. While Kun was mainly complicit in being dragged away, Johnny didn’t go without fight - he wouldn’t go without a fight. He struggled and grunted and held onto the nest of Serpents trying to release the teacher’s hold on him.  _

_ Pompously, Kun chuckled at the desperation while making sure to hide it from the other boy’s gaze. _

_ This was going to be a fun semester. _

\---

It was all a somewhat blur from then on: how Kun came to become a Southside Serpent with the leader’s son having a fat grudge against him, his ambiguous relationship with Ten, the state of Riverdale in general. 

With a heave and a sigh, he pushed himself off of the stool and made his way to the other side of the room where Ten sat straight and swirled his drink while in Johnny’s tight hold. The younger boy’s expression was blank but somehow radiated sadness and boredom. Kun would’ve been bored out of his mind too; listening to Johnny drone on and on about all the drug runs and the fights, it must have been tiring.

Kun locked eyes with Ten and the younger’s eyes bled with desperation. Consolingly, the older nodded his head towards the back room that led to the back door that led to the back of the bar. Beside his boyfriend, Ten nudges towards Johnny and shrugs subtly. Kun mouthed ‘wait a few minutes then go’ and slipped through the backdoor.

As Kun said, the night was very...off.

The landscape riddled with buildings and wrecked cars was clouded with fog and the evening chill had a sour bite to it. From the distance, you could hear the faint song of a few car alarms and brash yells from inside the White Wyrm. But, unlike most nights, above the subtle noise Kun heard silence. It was too silent: no fights, no drug rings, no ghoulies loitering around the streets. It was as if something was yet to happen. 

“Doesn’t all this get boring to you?” Ten was often seen before heard with his heeled boots clacking serenely against the concrete. He sat on the floor where Kun was, feeling the blizzard sensation of the winter cold press against his skin when he pushed his back up against the wall beside the older.

“What gets boring?” He laughs humorlessly and turns his head to look at Ten. His tan skin glittered under the fizzling lamp hung on the wall and his glasses fogged up in the cold air. Kun doesn’t make it obvious that he sees Ten as the prettiest boy on the south side, but sometimes he just can’t help it.

Ten sighed and threw his head back against the cold brick, “This. I’m tired, at least. Johnny wants me to run more jingle jangle for his dad every day next week. To the north side. I just...being a Serpent, it’s cool. But it’s all the danger, the drugs, the fact that Johnny blows a fuse twice a day and can’t deal with it and leaves me to baby him into being a decent human being for once-”

“...I-I shouldn’t have said that much. If...if you don’t mind, of course.”

Kun knows he shouldn’t have done it; the tattoo on his wrist and the jacket on his back told him he shouldn’t have done it. But he subconsciously moved his hand to grab Ten’s, in an affectionate manner. The warmth of Kun’s leather gloves surged through Ten’s skin, it made the both of them feel safe.

“If Johnny is so bad, then you shouldn’t have to put up with it. You’re not his damage control or his drug runner, you’re his boyfriend.” Kun said, scooting closer amidst the screaming of his conscience not to. 

“No, no,” Ten backtracked with haste, “He’s not all that bad, I promise, he just has issues with how he handles his emotions is all.”

“So he takes it out on you?”   
  


“I mean...he just...feels like there’s never been authority over him, or anyone to raise him...so he feels like he should be authoritative over other people when there’s no one to keep him calm...if that makes sense. Other than that, he’s amazing. That’s all.” Ten took in a deep breath and breathed it all out with his eyes shut tight, focusing on the rise and fall of his chest.

Kun looks over at Ten and grips his hand tighter, the leather of his glove tightening along with it, “I just want you to be safe...and I want you to be happy.”

It may have been coincidental, it may have been Kun’s imagination, but the second the two boys’ faces unconsciously leaned into each other the moon came alight. Kun’s hand was gently steadied on Ten’s knee and the other came to rest against the older’s upper arm and felt the waxy leather blanketing it. 

They slowly inched closer and closer until their lips enchantingly brushed. It was foreshadowing, unhurried and they were almost about to kiss until-

“Ayo John, your doll’s out back!”

Faster than the speed of light, the two disconnected from their little world and were sucked back into reality and their hands and the slight touch of their lips were pulled back and Kun naturally ruffled his hair. Sooner or later, the rattle of chains and stomp of chunky black boots echoed in the boys’ ears as Johnny assertively made his presence known on the veranda. He stared down at the two boys and narrowed his eyes in a cold glare.

“What are you doing with  _ him _ ?” Johnny’s voice dripped with possessiveness and distrust, his gaze fixed completely in the void of Kun’s eyes, as if to intimidate the Serpent boy. 

“Kun is my friend.” The last word stumbled out of Ten’s mouth unsurely but the boy looming above them didn’t seem to notice. He reached out a hand for Ten’s proportionately smaller ones to take and he pulled the younger up to pull into a private embrace. Kun stared on with the knowledge that Johnny wanted him to feel alienated - Johnny wanted Kun to feel jealous.

“I was getting worried, didn’t know where you were.” Johnny murmured over Ten’s lips, running his hand over the other’s waist.  _ Liar _ , Ten thought, but continued to blush and smile bashfully. 

All of a sudden, a stampede of roars and stomps boomed from inside the White Wyrm. A few Serpents tugged johnny aside roughly; their faces looked traumatised and pale with shock. After a few seconds of choked hisses, Johnny made a hasty beeline back into the bar. Like a chain reaction, Kun and Ten rushed back in too to meet the blinding bright red lights piercing their eyes and shielding them from the scene unfolding before them. Johnny pushed through the crowd and dropped to his knees before...something.

Kun leaned into a nearby Serpent, Mark, and muttered, “What’s going on?” 

“Black Hood...they came in here and shot at Rory. Blood everywhere, guy’s on the floor and close to dying.” Mark’s eyes looked like a phantom forced them open, their voice monotonous yet petrified. 

Ten looked on, stepping closer to Johnny - who was wrapping his leather jacket around the wounded Serpent fervently as he watched Rory pale rapidly. 

“What’s a Black Hood?” Ten butted in with a nervous tilt to his voice.

Mark sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets, “The Black Hood is this dude - or at least we think it’s a dude - that’s gone around the Northside terrorizing whoever he considered a wrongdoer. Anyone associated with jingle jangle, cheaters, most people have been shot in cold blood for anything the Black Hood has seen them do. Now he’s come down to the South...come for us.”

Over the course of an hour and the first aid kit being busted out, the atmosphere of the night grew dimmer and darker and gloomier. Rory died after forty-five minutes, the hole in his chest swollen with scabs and blood and his skin pale from blood loss. Johnny sat with his head in his hand and Ten sat on his knee, comfortingly rubbing a hand over his back. 

Kun sat cross legged outside the Whyte Worm, watching the fog clear and the moon illuminate in the sky, over the demise of the Southside Serpents.

Kun  _ did _ say that the night felt off.

\---

Ever since then, the Serpents lived in mourning, fear and anger. 

With the presence of the Black Hood haunting both districts of Riverdale, the loss of one of their colubrine blood and the scare of Mayor McCoy raiding Southside High. 

That hasn’t stopped the ever-brewing romance growing between Ten and Kun, however. 

Suspiciously both signing up to the Red and Black Newspaper for the semester, the two spend as much as they can attached at the hip: they had english class together, study buddy allocations, and now their place at the Red and Black.

Ten hummed intoxicatingly against Kun’s lips, grabbing both sides of the older’s face to pull them apart, though Kun was adamant on kissing him passionately with his hands bunched at the leather of Ten’s jacket. They were pushed against the desk, wrapped up in each other for minutes on end during lunch. For most of the school day, Ten was running around with Johnny and his Serpents and Kun was tagging along behind. 

“Kun..Kun! Babe…” Ten mustered in between Kun’s affectionate kisses, “Stop a sec. Aren’t you scared someone will see us?”

Rolling his eyes and dropping his hand from Ten’s brown locks, Kun replied, “Just come clean to Johnny already. It’s not gonna ruin him or whatever.  _ No serpent betrays its own _ , yknow?”

“But we’re already betraying him by making out in the Red and Black every lunch.” Kun’s gaze was unconsciously fixed on Ten’s lips as he spoke.

“Fuck it.” Kun’s hand found itself in Ten’s hair once more and he casually pressed their lips together once more.

It was entrancing and magical to kiss Kun, Ten thought. They were always in their own little bubble, their problems and the outside world nothing but fictitious to them in their passionate lip-locks.

So fictitious that they didn’t hear the door creak open.

“Guys?”

Just like that one night at the White Wyrm, they disconnected at the speed of light to see Mark staring unreadably at their position at the desk. 

“Don’t tell Johnny!” Ten whimpered through surprise and swollen lips.

“Don’t tell anyone.” Kun stated firmly, his hands finding purchase on the younger’s waist.

Being the awkward kid he is (poor Mark), Mark blinked a few times and dropped his eyes to the floor. He fished a crumpled piece of paper from his backpack and handed it to Kun while fiddling with his feet. 

“It’s for Ten. J-Just...be careful and shut the curtains and all that shit. It’s serious, man.” He clarified before making his way out of the room and shutting the blinds on the door.

Kun and Ten shared a look as the door shut with a sly click. Shakily, Ten grabbed the letter in a fragile hand and took a deep breath in.

‘ _ Ten Lee. _

_ Drug runner. Known accomplice to delinquency. Cheater.  _

_ I watch the ink drip from my pen as I list off the wrongs you willingly indulge in. Like a drug, no? _

_ I watch you. I watch everyone. I saw your failed attempt at adultery, I saw your endangering drug runs of the addictive straws of crime, I have seen every move you have made, right and wrong alike.  _

_ Let it be known that I will come for you. Maybe not today; maybe not tomorrow. But I will cleanse this town of it’s outlaws. I will cleanse Riverdale of people like you. _

_ Signed, the Black Hood.’ _

“Babe…”Kun’s voice withered away with every word of the letter he scans over. The eerie splotches of ink and subtle red stains printed into the paper sent chills down his spine, and he tightened his grip on Ten’s waist like the Black Hood was going to crawl from the shadows of the room and snatch him from his life there and then.

Ten remained motionless. Voiceless. Disconnected in shock. He was being hunted. He couldn’t register the damp sensation but a desolate tear ran down his cheek followed by a cascade of a second and a third and a fourth. He couldn’t hear the pathetic sound but a choked whimper left his mouth followed by a second and a third and a fourth. 

It was second nature to Kun to wrap the short boy in a bear hug and let the tears and wails seep into his bloodstream. The sounds shattered Kun’s heart like a jackhammer to his chest; it cracked his ribs, it stopped his heart, he bled out metaphorically at the demise of the boy nestling his face into his sweater.

“I’m gonna die.” Ten sobbed, his voice muffled by the thick cotton of the other’s sweater.

“You’re not gonna die.”

“I’m gonna fucking die, Kun.”

All the other could do was protectively wrap his arms around him tighter, tighter and tighter with the hopes that it would soothe the pain. 

Ten is going to die.

\---

Alongside the ominous feeling of him being watched since he got that letter, the guilt of Ten and Kun’s affair was eating him alive. It wasn’t a slow type of pain either; it chewed on his conscience limb by limb until his tendons ripped and he drowned in regret. 

Johnny wasn’t the sweetest most of the time even though he says he is. He used to be...but now…

He used to be so gentlemanly, so goofy and playful and such a hopeless romantic. But ever since his father involved him more in Serpent authority Johnny had started believing he was starved of control, and his hunger engrossed him over time. He started prowling around him when they weren’t around, marking his territory and acting out more often and it drove Ten up the wall. He was meaning to break it off with him in due time when he couldn’t take Johnny’s possessiveness anymore.

He wanted Johnny back. And the world thrust Kun Qian upon him.

Kun was gentlemanly: always putting Ten’s happiness before his own wants. He was goofy and playful when they snuck kisses underneath the stairs during study period and he was such a hopeless romantic. It’s not that he only loved Kun for his resemblance to Johnny but he was a breath of fresh air in his life and he didn’t want to let go of him.

But he didn’t know how to let go of Johnny.

He had meant to come clean to Johnny straight after his and Kun's first kiss. He couldn’t go on like this within their own relationship let alone the charm of another boy winning him over. He couldn’t fathom the idea of cheating on anyone and trivialising it to fit his perspective of a love story. It appalled him to look in the mirror and see a cheater.

So, after his encounter with the letter, he texted Johnny to meet him outside the White Wyrm that evening to tell him. Tell him about the kisses he’s shared with a fellow Serpent, about the lack of love and the replacement of toxicity, everything. He wanted to set things right.

Ten was startled by the violent slam of a car door. Johnny pulled up before him with an angry swagger in his walk.

“I’m not in the fucking mood for anything pointless right now, Ten. If you’re just planning on making my day any worse I swear god-”

Fuck.

What was he supposed to say now? ‘Not to make your day any worse and for you to possibly ruin my life but I’ve been cheating on you with another guy in the Serpents and I don’t want to see you anymore.’

“Umm…” Ten stumbled for his words, piecing together a puzzle of an excuse, “I just needed...I needed- you to pick me up! Yeah, my...car broke down and I needed you to take me home.”

Johnny huffed and scoffed, “Whatever, just get in. I don’t have time for this…”

Ten entered the car and breathed in deeply. Coward. Coward coward coward. What was Johnny going to do to him that was so bad for him to completely back out and leave the older boy oblivious?

Coward.

\---

It’s been about a week and it’s safe to say that Ten Lee doesn’t die.

Petrified of the very oxygen lingering in the air he breathes, Ten was overly cautious and his trust for everyone gradually drained into nothing.

Everyone but Kun.

It’s not that he thought Johnny was going to kill him, Johnny was the sweetest most of the time. But his involvements with whatever many felonies and delinquency and who he could be attached to make the hairs on the back of his neck raise fearfully.

“...Ten? Ten! Ba- I mean, Ten!” His disconnection from reality was snapped in half with the hushed but firm voice intruding his ears. Kun was leaned over the table at lunch and his face was dusted pink at the ever-terrifying ‘b word’ that almost slipped out. Ten turned his head to find Johnny looking at him, face close, where the younger boy was perched on his knee like always. His eyes were blown and diluted - they were passing around the jingle jangle again.

“Yeah, what?”

“I was saying that Mayor McCoy apparently wants to raid the school for drugs and dealers. That kid over the Northside thinks we’re the problem, pulled a gun on one of the guys the other day.” Kun growled unremorsefully and scanned his eyes over the Serpents gathered around the table. 

“They called us run-down delinquents. Fuckers.” Johnny slammed a fist onto the rickety table, shifting the grains of jingle jangle and sending a stinging current surging through Ten’s bloodstream, making him jump and yelp abruptly.

Johnny apologetically yet passively slithered an arm around the boy and rubbed an arm up and down his arm, “Sorry, doll.”

From the corner of Ten’s eye, he saw Kun tenuously roll his eyes.

Mark took the awkward silence as a chance to speak up from next to Johnny, “Anyways, Johnny and I and gonna hit the skate park after school if y'all wanna-”

“Can’t. Sorry, man. Gotta stay after school with Ten.” Johnny quickly replied. He focused his attention onto his drink and looked away from Mark.

“But you promised-”

“Yeah, and I changed my mind, so let it go.” Mark huffed and turned away at the outburst, the table of Serpents sinking into silence once again. 

After a few minutes that seemed like years, Ten heard a cacophonous blast echo through the cafeteria and saw a kid burst through the door.

“Mayor McCoy just walked in.”

With those mere five words the room erupted into chaos and panic.

Some hid under tables, some reached for straws of jingle jangle, and the Serpents made haste to escape the room amidst the roars, hisses and aggressive migrations. Both Kun and Johnny reached for Ten’s waist to reel him aside into the Janitor’s Closet and the office for the Red and Black. Ten ended up being pulled close to Kun in the end and it was swiftly dismissed by Johnny as the door to the Red and Black slammed shut. Anxiously, Ten peeked his eyes over the shuttered window on the door and saw Sheriff Keller and his team roaming the halls with packs of serpents struggling behind them. The small boy’s frames knocked against the blinds and Kun pulled him back into his chest as Mayor McCoy came into view through the slits of the shutters, marching her way into the centre of the hallway and ordering the sheriff’s department to take half the school over to the Northside for ‘interrogation’. 

Kun’s clammy hands desperately reached for Ten’s and they interlocked like an easy-fitting puzzle. They stood still - watching the door motionlessly but nervously - until the ruckus had died down. 

“This school is clearly unsafe. I may need to consider...I may need to consider closing down Southside High School for the safety of the students and faculty.” Mayor McCoy’s voice was muffled through the thick wood of the door but the shock factor slid under the door and zapped Ten and Kun into understanding the weight of the situation.

Suddenly, they heard Johnny’s voice bark, “Bro, what the fuck? This is your fault for not funding the school, I’m not going near a bunch of privileged fucks that won’t hesitate to knock me cold for existing!”

Ten sighed amongst the distant yelling.  _ That’s my boyfriend _ , he thought.

As brash and bitter and hostile the older boy was, he was right in the long run. If he showed up to Riverdale High dressed in a leather jacket painted with a vicious snake he would be - very ironically - eaten alive. 

\---

Two weeks had passed, and Ten has still not fucking died. 

He stood in front of his body-length mirror, the reflection of him ripping him to shreds. The sight of the waxy leather Serpents jacket prophesied the mockery that he was about to face; his tousled brown hair was untamed and refused to be so (Kun had been here since 3am to make out and only left half an hour to escape the wrath of ‘grumpy morning Johnny’); his shirt was thrown on and untucked and his jeans were stained with paint. 

Mayor McCoy indeed shut down Southside High and transferred the students to Riverdale High, much to everyone’s dismay. Ten _ knew _ they would stick out like sore thumbs and he dreaded the very minute he walked through the door to have pairs upon pairs of eyes on him. 

Taking a deep breath, he made his way downstairs and carelessly slung his backpack over his shoulder, utilising his other hand to open the door. Just like every morning, Johnny was leant against his car cockily with his hands hibernating in his jean pockets. The tall boy’s eyes drooped sleepily but it didn’t stop him from pushing himself away from his car and making his way to Ten.

“‘Morning,” The younger drawled as he stood on his tippy-toes to peck his boyfriend on the lips. Johnny, obviously having other plans, attempted to deepen the kiss and slid his hands down to his waist. Humming, Ten placed a hand on the nape of Johnny’s neck and pushed him away, “Not now, too tired…”

“But you always kiss me in the morning.”

“I just don’t wanna, okay?” Ten retorted, ignoring the light swell of his lips from six hours ago. He wriggled away from Johnny and walked around the car to enter the black car. 

From behind him, he heard Johnny scoff and mutter something,  _ asshole _ , Ten thought. 

\---

The very sight of Riverdale High struck fear into Ten. The clean vintage aspect of the school without it being almost dilapidated or crumbling to its foundations was an abnormal look for a school, so were the double glazed windows instead of shattered glass from pent-up dodgeball attacks and the evergreen trees surrounding the school giving it some coming of age movie effect. It was a normal school, and Ten had ever seen one before

Suddenly, he felt a dominant hand firmly pull him along the pathway and up the stone stairs. Johnny busted the door open with little to no shame at all, oblivious to the horrified stares being targeted towards the two. Ten stared at each pair of eyes eyeing him until he found Kun settling his books into his new locker (no chipped paint, might he add). They locked eyes with each other and mutually took a glance at Johnny before their eyes turned guilty. 

Ten absentmindedly slipped his hand from Johnny’s to join Kun, walking up behind him and bracing his hands on his shoulders abruptly.

“Boo!” 

The older boy laughed fondly at Ten’s attempt at scaring him; he found it adorable how he had to jump a little bit to reach his shoulders. He turned around and held his wrist maybe that was the safer option.

“You were eyeing me up like fifteen seconds ago, you’re not as spine-chillingly scary as you think you are, babe.” Kun’s smile was blinding, if you wanted to be cliche you could say it shone like the sun whenever his lips parted. 

The other boy smiled sheepishly, hanging his head to avoid the strong gaze of adoration shining over him this early in the morning. In that movement, Ten drowned in guilt - it wasn’t as noticeable at first but the waters rose and rose until it reached his heart and it slowly poured out when he realised.

He was  _ cheating _ on Johnny. Like,  _ actually cheating _ .

Kun, evidently noticing his...boyfriend’s?... change in mood, he moved closer with a serious expression painted on his face.

“Hey, what’s going-”

The older boy’s soft voice was muffled by the sound of sneakers sliding against the floor restlessly. Mark came bouncing through the hall and around the corner towards Ten.

“Dude, you have to see your locker, like, right now.” His voice trembled from his heavy breathing when he awkwardly stopped before him. Somehow it sent a dangerous foreshadowing to bubble with Ten’s weakening feeling from earlier. He looked at Kun inquisitively and they both tagged behind Mark towards Ten’s new locker.

When they stopped before it, pushing and weaving through the murmuring crowd, the small boy’s locker was in a grotesque state. The paint was chipped in the manner of vicious claw marks and red spray paint dripped down the stretch of three lockers, Ten’s being in the middle.

**‘Ten Lee is a liar.’**

If I said that all Ten saw was red, you’d immediately think he’d be angry. But when I say it I mean it most literally: a glaring vermillion red diffused within his vision, the memory indenting into his surroundings like it was in control of itself, indenting itself. Ten was scared.

He knew everyone was staring - he felt it. The holes lasered through his skin painfully and he wanted to run away from it all. He wanted to run far away from this place with Kun and never look back because he couldn’t bear facing anyone’s eyes when reading those five mere letters.

Soon enough the Serpents slithered over to his aid, barricading his frozen body and hollering at the students to move away. Johnny’s shadow loomed over him and Ten couldn’t not want to die this very moment. His boyfriend would be more explosive than Ten could ever be. 

The tall boy grabbed ahold of the other’s arms, wrapping him in a protective hug, “Who the fuck did this?” 

All Ten could do was shake his head, he didn’t want to believe this was real, he didn’t want to believe this wasn’t a sadistic nightmare punishing him for his lack of conscience. 

Pushing Johnny aside and glaring down everyone in their room - including his own Serpent kind -, Kun’s minty sage hair highlighted the steaming red in his face. Kun was rarely ever angry, ever. Hence why it was surprising as to why he became a Serpent in the first place. Except for his first day at Southside High, the boy has never blown a fuse. Today is the day that ignites it. 

“Whatever sick fuck on the Northside has the capacity to find something like this funny, or entertaining, or amusing can step up right now. I don’t care about your dark humour or whatever fucking reason you think this is okay; but know that if I get my hands on you honest to god I will _ ruin _ .  _ your _ .  _ life.” _

The room drowned in an ocean of silence. Eerie, grotesque silence. Not even Southside kids had seen Kun Qian fly off the handle like that before. The loud quiet only fueled the boy’s rage. He stormed off in a fit of rage, leaving everyone stunned. Ten had still not moved, involuntarily drinking in the layers upon layers of the red paint on his locker.

The Black Hood wasn’t afraid of exposing Ten and Kun, fully aware of the consequences that came with it.

\---

It had been around twenty minutes since Ten had seen Kun last. He had shown up to the Blue and Gold newspaper office (to which he prayed was not occupied) where he hoped Kun would be, leaning against a desk with a playful smirk. To his half-surprise, the older boy was probably still sulking after the threatening message on his locker.

As he walked past his locker on his adventure to find Kun, he noticed the janitor had sloppily cleaned the paint off of his locker. Ten rushed his way down the hall, dodging the students and swinging his line of vision to and fro in the hopes to find a mop of electric mint hair. 

He turned a corner to see a long, dimmed corridor with a shadowy dead end. The ghostly atmosphere beckoned him closer but begged him to run and Ten didn’t know what to do. Unfortunately, Ten’s feet poke for him and they moved closer, slowly, near the closet at the end of the hall. 

Ten didn’t know if it was just his mind playing games with him or if he actually heard muffled groans echo through the wooden door and into his ears. It wasn’t a groan of sexual intent, more...pain and desperation. Suffering. 

He braced his hand on the knob and twisted it with a shake. The door clicked open to introduce Ten with the worst case scenario that had been on his mind all the time Kun had been gone. 

Kun was slumped in the corner of the small closet, his weight relying on how arms firmly planted on a bunch of plastic boxes in piles at each of his sides. His hair was scruffy and stuck to his forehead and his jeans seeped with a sour red. The denim was torn at the side and it frayed like it was ripped into.

Might’ve explained the knife jammed into his hip.

Ten rushed onto the floor before Kun, feeling the blood soak his knees where it was puddled on the floor. His hands raised to cup the older’s face tight as Kun groaned out in pain with an anguished expression. Kun’s face was cold. It chilled Ten’s palms and the boy caressed over the older’s cheekbones, feeling the icicled skin on the pad of this thumb. 

“Oh, Kun…” Ten whispered breathily, “Who did this to you?”

Swallowing back any gasps or wails, Kun sucked in a deep breath, “Some dude...I was just sitting in here and he came in and just...stabbed me, no hesitation. I think it was the Black Hood.”

“What makes you think it’s them?”

“Let’s start with the fact that they wore a black hood- fuck!” He hissed when Ten gripped the knife gently and moved it around so slightly. 

The younger boy fished around desperately in his backpack until he reeled out a pack of antiseptic wipes and a bandage. He unhurriedly pulled at the knife like King Arthur’s sword, which caused Kun to muffle a wail.

“Why do you carry all that shit in your backpack?” Kun sighed as the antiseptic wipe dabbed threateningly at his wound.

“There’s a serial killer on the loose, plus i’m not stupid.” Ten replied, winding the bandage over the puncture gently. Kun chuckled, smiling through the weight on his chest at the boy desperately mothering him from then on.

The room delved into silence. Awkward silence, although nobody said anything awkward.

“I wanna break up with Johnny. For real this time.”

The two’s eyes met immediately. Their pupils intertwined with each other; Ten’s look of desperation for Kun to be happy and Kun’s ambiguous shock plunged them into further silence.

“R-Really?” Kun gasped, moving his hand down his leg to lay over Ten’s. The other boy nodded.

“I’ve been wanting to for, like, a year, before I ever had feelings for you. He isn’t who he used to be, and I can’t baby him or just let him throw me around anymore. And I can’t leave him in the dark either, how is that fair? It’s obvious there’s no love there anymore…”

“...because I love you.”

Languidly, their fingers found each other and intertwined, their racing pulses knocking against each other as their hearts raced. Kun’s lips painted on a loving smile, his teeth shining through. The contagious smile caused Ten’s lips to rise and giggle bashfully. 

“I love you a lot, Kun Qian. I’ve never been with someone like you. The way you smile, the way you laugh, when you kiss me at 3am and buy me milkshakes at Popp’s when I have a pop quiz and feel stressed. I love you, Kun, and I wanna be with you, for real. I should’ve realised that sooner.” Ten’s voice was passionate and his heart was pumping so hard it felt like it was about to burst. 

“I might be bleeding on the floor right now,” The two shouldn’t have laughed when Kun replied but they were too lost in the moment to care, “But I swear to god, I love you so fucking much. I’m kinda mad that you didn’t break up with Johnny sooner, since he couldn’t treat you right let alone himself. But now, right here, right now, I can say that I wanna kiss you so bad. I wanna hold your hand and give you flowers and make you so happy with no shame. Because I love you. So much.”

Kun raised his hand and stroked a few strands of hair from Ten’s face, “Can I?”

And so they did - lips on lips, love for love, for give and take.

\---

Life is wonderful, Ten thought. The sun was shining, light spilling through his open window and the world just being...bright.

It had been about a week since Ten broke it off with Johnny. He had stopped him in the White Wyrm one Saturday when everyone left to come blean to him: about his truth, his affairs, how he couldn’t bear another year like this. It felt like hours upon hours upon hours for Ten to finally explain it with bluntness and regret, but Johnny somehow understood. He was livid but he understood. He understood how he changed (not how it was bad, however) and how Ten could’ve felt different about him. The conversation just illuminated how their flame had dissipated. Johnny was flaming at the ears when he found out that Ten was sucking face with someone other than him, let alone a Serpent, and even threatened to ‘deck Kun Qian the second he sees him next’. Kun indeed did get decked that following Monday, resulting in a horrendous black eye. 

But it was all over now. 

Everyone had parted ways, and everyone was (somewhat) content. 

♪  _ Space girl, I saw a lunar eclipse. Looked like the way I feel ‘bout your lips. ♪ _

Ten stood in the middle of his bedroom, humming along to the smooth music dancing in his ears. He heard the floorboards creak when Kun stood up from his bed and hugged him from behind, his hands wandering around his waist and fiddling unconsciously with the hem of Ten’s shirt.

Kun hummed delightfully, “This song reminds me of you.” He nuzzled his head into the nape of his boyfriend’s (oh, how great it feels to finally say it) neck and swayed the two along to the music. Giggling, Ten interlocked his hands with the older boy where they were settled on his stomach.

“How?”

“Eccentric, romantic, out of this fucking world.” Ten could feel Kun’s smirk at his skin from the relatively unfunny pun. Regardless, he laughed as Kun placed soft, tickling kisses on the column of Ten’s neck, causing the younger boy to bare his neck and sway along to the music with Kun. Ten turned around in his arms and smoothed his hands over Kun’s shoulders, feeling the soft fabric of his sweater against his palms. 

“Is that so?” The younger replied, moving his face closer to Kuns and brushing his lips against his teasingly.

Nodding, the older pressed their lips together firmly, sighing into the kiss. Their arms slowly wrapped around each other as they got lost within one another’s lips. It was blissful and serene, the feeling of their lips melding perfectly. The feeling made Ten at home - like Kun was his home all along. The kiss felt natural and domestic, and Ten wished he’d never opened his eyes.

He felt an ominous gaze upon him and it made him shudder frostily. Suspiciously, he opened his eyes during the kiss and found none other than the Black Hood perched on the tree branch outside his very much open window.

Slow but still, Ten pushed Kun away from hum with his gaze forced upon the creature outside his window, “Kun..Kun, what the fuck, look!”

The Black Hood didn’t move an inch, which unnerved Ten more than anything. Just the sawing branches in the wind and a pair of piercing eyes staring into his. Kun protectively tightened his grip on his boyfriend’s waist and led them the other direction, out of the room and slamming the door.

Kun looked back at his boyfriend once they reached the closet and noticed Ten was crying; breathing erratic and tears involuntarily cascading. He backed them both up against the door and moved a hand to Ten’s cheek, wiping his tears softly and threading his fingers through his hair.

“Okay, okay,” Kun started, “You have your phone, I have mine. If they do anything we have people to call, yeah? I’ll lock the door and I promise they won’t get you - over my dead body.”

Ten nodded with a hanging head. The older boy unlocked the door and ushered Ten inside before locking it from top to bottom. He engulfed the younger in a tight hug and whispered sweet nothings in his ear until Ten’s breathing slowed. 

Then there were footsteps. Slow, hungry, prowling footsteps. They were merely strong pads along the floor but it boomed and echoed in the boys’ ears. Breathing got heavier and footsteps got louder. Ten burrowed his head into Kun’s chest and squeezed his eyes shut tight, like he was trapping himself in his own little world and the Black Hood couldn’t get him. 

The mantra of footsteps suddenly stopped and the doorknob jingled against Kun’s back. Their hearts raced so fast you probably couldn’t even feel it and they clung to each other tighter and tiger until the door busted open and-

“Dude, I just wanted my corn nuts!”

Ten looked up to find his little brother Yangyang gaping at them with wide eyes. Thank fuck, he thought. 

“Yangyang, you just broke the door!” Ten whined and hid his face in Kun’s chest with relief that Yangyang was oblivious to. 

“What?” Yangyang said, witnessing the shock on the boys’ faces. Shaking his head, Kun dismissed him. 

“Nothing, kid.” The oldest of the three sighed, leading him and Ten out into the hallway and staring at the door to Ten’s bedroom. He was burning holes into the wooden door like it would shrink into molten sap and reveal the Black Hood staring back at him. 

Picking up his corn nuts with a plastic crackle and laughing awkwardly at the two, “Alright, then, I’ll go skateboard with Renjun or something…”

When Ten’s brother walked away, Kun looked towards his boyfriend and nudged his head towards the closed door. Shaking his head desperately, the younger boy looked up with wide doe eyes pleading to stay in the closet with the corn nuts. Kun tugged on his wrist and unhurriedly led them down the hall to the door that was left slightly ajar. With a steady grip Kun mustered all his energy to burst through the door and come face to face with the Black Hood.

But there was anything but their presence.

All but a letter and a jammed open window. The coffee crisp paper wagged at the corners in the breeze and the handwriting was splotchy with ink - it looked rushed. Ten took a step back and pressed himself into the door, pushing it closed firmly. His boyfriend walked gingerly towards the letter and gently picked it up with two dainty fingers. 

‘ _ Revenge is far from served.  _

_ Your fear is not enough. Your guilt is not enough. The satisfaction of your fear is not enough. _

_ I pull your strings, you await me. _

_ Wait. _ ’

“Baby…” Kun sighed, his grip tightening on the crumpled paper. Ten slid down the door from behind Kun and squeezed his eyes shut in agony. He was being hunted, literally hunted by a murderer and he couldn’t escape their grasp. It felt like he was bounding through a maze and couldn’t find his way out. 

\---

That coming Monday was silent. Monotonous. Ominous. 

The walk to school felt quiet among the muffled echoes of the students’ noise; classes were bland and drowned out; even lunch didn’t feel as rowdy and raucous to Ten. He was wallowing in fear and feeling it sink into his skin and scratch at his bones. He just didn’t feel safe anywhere.

Ten was slumped into his locker, shifting his weight onto the metal box and drowning in the abnormal silence. He was most definitely late to calculus and, to be frank, he had lost track of time completely. The only think plaguing his mind was the picture of the Black Hood staring at him through his window at the weekend. 

He slung his backpack over his shoulder roughly and shifted his feet along the linoleum floor to make his way to class, hearing the faint squeak of his sneakers against the floor.

But then, a crash echoed throughout the hallway.

It sounded like the main door to the school swinging shut ruthlessly, and Ten’s body shivered uncomfortably. He quickened his pace in the opposite direction as his breathing staggered unevenly.

Footsteps clacked against the floor and stalked Ten along the hallway. The footsteps grew arms and legs and crawled closer as they crossed the lonesome hallway in the middle of the school. Ten’s feet tripped over each other and stumbled where he was speed walking down the hall until.

Slam went the door behind him. 

The boy stopped in his tracks and took a deep breath. This was not going to end well. Giving Ten deja vu from the weekend, the footsteps grew heavier and more threatening in their volume. His vision blurred and the school halls turned into an endless labyrinth. He followed wherever his feet took him, even if he had little to no idea where they were going.

“Ten Li!” The voice shouted, threatening, bold and animalistic. 

A figure stood opposite him at the end of the hallway, ominous in the shadows like they tamed them. The Black Hood stepped closer to Ten, slowly backing the latter into the row of lockers and milking Ten of every drop of fear he had left. They watched the boy’s face contort in terror and his chest rise and fall heavily.

And their satisfaction only skyrocketed when they pulled out the gun.

Ten emitted a silent yelp, his throat blocked in pure terror at the sight of the muzzle of the revolver boring into his eyes, the deep black shadow within the hole replaced with a glaring bullet. His eyes squeezed shut, an unsettling feeling washing over his body where he was readying for the deafening gunshot. 

Suddenly, ever so suddenly, everything that was quiet came back to life in the darkness. Scuffling footsteps and police sirens filled the hallway and Ten had guessed that the students and teachers had caught onto The Black Hood breaking into school. He could hear Sheriff Keller’s voice weigh out the other sounds around the room. Ten opened his eyes to find Kun, still and shocked, at the front of the crowd. 

“Take the mask off!” Keller’s voice boomed, hands shakily clutching the baton.

“Shut the fuck up! Shut  _ the fuck _ up, Keller.” The Black Hood’s voice sounded...nothing like the Black Hood. Their voice was reported to be deep, gruff and deliberately hidden with a voice alterer. The hooded vigilante before him had a voice that didn’t even hide it’s brash, boyish bark with a New York twinge. Ten’s heartbeat quickened.

“Mark?”

Roughly, Mark pulled the hood off with uncontrollably heaving breaths and his revolver still threatening Ten pointedly. The younger boy’s hair was messy and his eyes were bagged; like he hadn’t slept in days. Ten had never seen this side of his dorky, fun-loving, awkward Serpent and it horrified him deeply, to see him so dishevelled, so un-Mark. 

“Mark, put the gun down. Nice and easy-” Kun’s motherly attempt to talk the boy down was futile as soon as he stepped into Mark’s space.

“Don’t talk to me like that, Qian, I’m not a kid. I’m not a fucking kid!” Mark cried, stomping his foot like...ultimately, a kid. Kun froze and locked eyes when Mark continued to speak.

“Don't...Don’t come near me. He deserves this. He made Johnny sad. He cheated on Johnny and-and he made Johnny sad. He betrayed a Serpent and he needs to pay for it.”, He waved the gun manically in Ten’s face, causing the older boy to jolt, “I know the Black Hood scares him, so i wanted to freak him out and leave Johnny but then I saw it...they were fucking making out in the Red and Black and it made me think: you don’t deserve a warning, you deserve so much fore for ruining Johnny. You ruined the one boy I ever loved - you stole him from me and you broke him apart. You broke the rules, Ten!”

Kun reached his arms out in front of his face for protection as he spoke gently, “Mark, this is just an impulse reaction, don’t do this.”

Shaking his head, Mark sighed shakily and a desolate tear forced itself from his eye, “N-No, you deserve this too. You came onto him, you came onto him the night The Black Hood shot Rory in the White Wyrm - this is all your fault and you’re gonna pay-”

“Mark!”

Johnny forced himself roughly through the crowd, reddish-brown hair swept wearily around his eyes and his vision dazed in shock. He pushed Sheriff Keller aside and stayed put defensively, Johnny himself scared of Mark’s rampage.

“Mark, put the gun down. Put it down, Markie. I don’t want this to happen, please put the gun down, okay?” His voice was that of spider silk and honey - gone was the gruff gravelly yelling (for now) as he consoled Mark, pointing subtly at the gun in his grip.

“No, Johnny, you don’t get it, you’ll never get it - I love you, I’m doing this for you! They ruined you, man, they spent days lying to you and breaking the Serpent code. Ten took you from me and now you never wanna love again.” Mark’s whisper was so broken, shattered. Upon meeting Johnny’s eyes, his anger drowned and he wallowed in sadness. 

“I’m begging you, I don’t want them to die. Mark, just put the gun down and we’ll talk about all this. Put it down, can you do that for me? Please?”

Mark hesitated for a while. He paused, squeezed his eyes shut, and took in a deep breath. Gradually, Ten heard the smack of the revolver against the floor and the sight of Mark sinking to the floor in shame. 

Kun immediately ran to engulf him in his arms, Ten sobbing into the comfort of the older’s hoodie. Johnny was kneeled behind a crumbling Mark, who was being handcuffed and lifted from the floor. 

“God, I thought I was gonna lose you…” Kun murmured into his boyfriend’s hair, nuzzling it protectively. 

They stayed like that for a while; not caring about whoever was watching. They were safe. They were together.

“So,” Ten pulled back from Kun’s embrace, “Mark was never the Black Hood? He just wanted to scare me away from Johnny?”

“That’s what he just confessed to,” Johnny padded back into the hallway from the classroom where Mark was being temporarily held, “Hey, can we talk for a minute? If you don’t mind, of course?”

\---

They were sat in the Red and Black, sitting atop the desks abnormally close for a couple of ex-boyfriends.

“I just wanted to say that I forgive you.”

Ten looked up - finally - with wide eyes. He shook his head softly.

“No, you don’t. You shouldn’t. What I did was unforgivable, you shouldn’t just let me off the hook like that.” He whispered, the guilty pentameter building up in his chest again. 

Johnny’s hand found its way to his shoulder. He felt kinder; human. He sighed deeply and spoke into the awkward silence.

“No, I really do forgive you. I didn’t realise before but...I was an ass. To you and everyone else. You felt trapped and I get it. I didn’t realise until you broke up with me and I socked Qian in the face.” The boy laughed humourlessly and looked down. 

“I wanna apologise...again. I shouldn’t have put you through any second-guessing or worrying. I should’ve just come out with it and I didn’t. So I’m so, so sorry.” Ten said, looking into Johnny’s eyes when he looked up. He really did feel guilty. Always had. 

The room plunged into silence once again.

“At least we got everything off our chests, right?” The two chuckled emptily, and when their eyes met, they burst into a fit of laughter.

Platonically. As friends. 

\---

There are stories of a town.

A town divided by north and south. A town plagued by fear and gruesome characters that lurk below the town with pep. 

Kun and Ten were resting by Sweetwater River on a spring afternoon, watching the tranquil ripples of the water trickle down the stream and the delicate skipping stones and flower petals floating atop the river. The sun was out, shining and joyous for the first time in days and the breeze was light and free. It felt more like Riverdale; at least compared to the hellhole it used to be. 

It had been two weeks since Mark Lee’s rampage at Riverdale High, and all had returned to normal on their behalf. They got to act like a normal couple - Kun would shamelessly kiss him in the hallway, Ten would put flowers in Kun’s locker and they’d both spend their time at Pop's Chock’lit Shoppe at 3am when Ten was stressing for a test or Kun had unceremoniously gotten into a fight. It felt freeing to finally be together without slipping through the cracks or sneaking around in fear of death at the most.

Johnny’s father had taken the weight of Serpent authority off of his shoulders for once; he had let him be a kid. Johnny went skating with the football team after school and attended study groups with other Serpents. He was less stressed, less tied down and more...well,  _ free _ . 

Everything was back to normal, and everyone was living in the freedom.

“Johnny said he wanted to go to Pop’s with the Serpents, texted just now,” Kun mumbled sleepily, his head resting comfortably on Ten’s lap, “You wanna go?”

Ten broke his gaze from the glimmering water before them and met his boyfriend’s eyes, “Yeah, I do.”

Kun sat up and wrapped his arms around Ten, resting his head on top of the younger’s with a smile.

“This is nice. Really nice.”

It  _ was _ nice, spending time like this. No mysteries, no murders, no risking their lives. It was nice.

For now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I might turn this into a series but idk


End file.
